A Former Greenhorn of the Greenhornes

I've underestimated your effect on me or maybe I was too blind to see... The Greenhornes - Underestimator

The Raconteurs released the great album Broken Boy Solider in 2006.  What initially seemed to me to be a Jack White vehicle, later I realized I underestimated the importance of the other 3 members.  First, I really got into Brendan Benson's great power pop type music.  Then later I discovered Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler's band The Greenhornes.  Their sound is reminiscent of 1960's garage rock and in particular The Animals.  I guess it is no coincident that they recorded with Eric Burdon in 2012.

I have been collecting their music, but some of their discs are hard to find or really expensive.  I guess to sum it up I will quote the great Michael Scott - "Next time you will estimate me".

Discography:

• Gun For You (1990)
• The Greenhornes (2001)
• Dual Mono (2002)
• East Grand Blues (ep) (2005)
• Sewed Souls (compilation) (2005)
• Four Stars (2010)
• Eric Burdon & The Greenhornes (ep) (2012)

The Racs are Back

What will you do now that you're alone?...  The Raconteurs - Now That You're Gone

The Raconteurs are finally releasing a follow up album to 2008's Consolers of the Lonely.  The band also plans to tour in 2009.

Best of the 00's: Broken Boy Soldiers

Find yourself a girl, and settle down; Live a simple life in a quiet town; Steady as she goes... (The Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes)
Jack White's side project The Raconteurs featuring fellow Michiganer Brendan Benson on guitar and vocals, Jack Lawrence on bass and Patrick Keeler on drums caught me by surprise in 2006 with Broken Boy Soldiers. I was just getting into Jack White's music when I saw the cover of the cd which intrigued me enough that I bought the cd and after my first listen I was pleasantly surprised. They sounded like a band that had been around together. The music inside was fresh yet it could have been from the late 60's or mid-70's.

The opening song Steady As She Goes should have been a hit single; a perfect rock song; "Find yourself a girl and settle down; live a simple life in a quiet town, Steady as she goes"

Hands is a real rocker with Who like power chords at the beginning; "Girl you got those hands that heal help me get in touch with what I feel"

Level begins with sort of a Twilight Zone kind of start and then turns into another rocker; "My baby's on the level, I try to read her mind, She's on the straight and narrow, I'm guessing all the time";


Intimate Secretary is one of those catchy pop songs with interesting rhymes; "Venerable obscurest malarkey, Doulocracy, Ecclesiarchy, Our fellow's craft is just not for sharing, He's not an intimate secretary";

Broken Boy Soldiers is solid all the way through; Blue Veins is a powerful blues song; Together, Call It a Day and Yellow Sun are upbeat pop nuggets; and Broken Boy Soldiers and Store Bought Bones are classic rockers. Broken Boy Soldiers came out of nowhere to become one of the best of the 00's.

Relatives of Jack White

I change my mind every time that the wind blows; Don't know what happens, don't know where the time goes; I feel a whole lot better when you come around... (Brendan Benson - A Whole Lot Better)

A couple of recent Jack White related releases have caught my ear; Brendan Benson's An Old Familiar Friend and The Dead Weather's Horehound (another Jack White side project).

Brendan Benson is the co-lead singer/guitarist and Jack White's partner in crime in The Raconteurs. Benson's new cd My Old Familiar Friend is his fourth solo cd and while it may echo The Raconteurs it definitely stands on it's own. Benson's songs are laced with 1970's style hooks that only after a few nibbles you feel yourself being reeled in. The cd leads off with, A Whole Lot Better, 3 minutes of pure perfect pop; Gonowhere displays a kind of Paul McCartney & Wings feel; Garbage Day harkens back to Motown glory; Eyes on the Horizon displays the kind of paranoia that only Ray Davies of The Kinks could write; Misery is another instant winner. My Old Familiar Friend is just that, it somehow instantly feels like you know these songs in a nice fresh way.


The Dead Weather is a whole other thing; a kind of alternative rock supergroup comprised of Jack White (on drums), Alison Mosshart from The Kills (on vocals), Dean Fertita from Queens of the Stone Age (on guitar) and Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs (on bass). This is sort of anti-pop, heavy blues, like a modern Led Zeppelin. The cd requires numerous listens to absorb whats happening, but it is worth the effort. The highlights for me are Treat Me Like Your Mother, Will There Be Enough Water, Rocking Horse.